Negotiators work overtime in bid to avert oil industry strike

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Norwegian oil workers and their employers have extended their pay talks past a midnight deadline in a bid to avert a strike that would reduce the country’s oil and gas output, reported Reuters with reference to negotiators.

The Lederne trade union has threatened to strike at offshore fields operated by Equinor, Aker BP and others, which the oil firms said would curb production by some 440,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day.

The deadline for the wage talks had originally been set to midnight on Monday (2200 GMT).

As MRC informed before, in March 2018, Norway’s Statoil announced plans to change its name to Equinor, reflecting its commitment to become a broad energy company rather than one focused only on oil.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- France’s Total declared force majeure on the production of jet fuel at its Leuna refinery in Germany following the supply of contaminated crude from Russia, reported Reuters.

"We have declared Force Majeure on the jet fuel from the Leuna refinery," a Total spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said that due to ongoing problems with crude supply through the Druzhba pipeline, the Leuna refinery was still operating at a reduced rate using crude oil from stocks and alternative supply routes via Gdansk port."

"Total is making its best efforts to limit the effect on the supply of petroleum products to customers and service stations thanks to additional supply channels."

As MRC informed previously, in December 2017, Total inaugurated the new units at its Antwerp integrated refining & petrochemicals platform, which had progressively started up in the previous few months.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Four units are down at Cameroon’s only refinery, but the shortage will be covered by imports starting on Tuesday, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the energy minister's statement.

As MRC informed earlier, the 42,000 barrel-per-day Sonara refinery in Limbe declared a force majeure on Saturday after a tank exploded, causing a fire that halted output.

"Flames consumed four of the 13 production units, stopping all the Sonara refining process," Minister of Water Resources and Energy Gaston Eloundou Essomba said. "The market will remain supplied by imports."

Sonara, which is almost entirely state owned apart from a 4% stake held by Total, has a capacity of 2.1 million tonnes of crude a year. It serves the whole country, so any delay in getting it back up and running has the potential to cause severe fuel shortages.

As MRC wrote before, in December 2017, Total inaugurated the new units at its Antwerp integrated refining & petrochemicals platform, which had progressively started up in the previous few months.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire broke out at a facility used for storing oil products at the Bandar Rajaee port on Iran’s Gulf coast, reported Reuters with referece to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

Firefighters were on the scene combating the blaze, which was accompanied by explosions, according to IRNA.

IRNA did not provide any information on possible casualties.

The fire started at a machine used to lift containers at the port and spread to an area used for storing oil products, IRNA reported.

As MRC wrote before, in mid-September 2016, a fire broke out at Iran's Mobin Petrochemical refinery complex in southern port of Assaluyeh, leaving four people injured.Tthe fire caused no threat to the operations in the South Pars gas fields in Assaluyeh.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s petrochemicals company INEOS said it would invest USD2 billion to build three plants in Saudi Arabia as part of Saudi Aramco and Total’s petrochemical complex, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

INEOS’ plants will be part of Saudi Aramco and Total’s planned construction of a USD5 billion petrochemical complex called Project Amiral, which would supply more than USD4 billion of downstream derivatives and specialty chemicals, the company said.

"The timing is right for us to enter this significant agreement in Saudi Arabia with Saudi Aramco and Total. We are bringing advanced downstream technology which will add value and create further jobs in The Kingdom," said Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of INEOS, in a statement.

As MRC wrote before, in January 2019, INEOS announced Antwerp as the location for its new petrochemical investment. The EUR3 billion investment will be the biggest ever made by INEOS and is first cracker to be built in Europe in 20 years. The investment is a game changer for the chemical sectors and will bring huge benefits to the Belgium and wider European economies. Thus, Antwerp, Belgium will be the location for its multi-billion Euro project for an ethane gas cracker and world-scale PDH unit in Europe.
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